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3 You can create a new table by specifying the table
4 name, along with all column names and their types:
6 </p><pre class="programlisting">
9 temp_lo int, -- low temperature
10 temp_hi int, -- high temperature
11 prcp real, -- precipitation
16 You can enter this into <code class="command">psql</code> with the line
17 breaks. <code class="command">psql</code> will recognize that the command
18 is not terminated until the semicolon.
20 White space (i.e., spaces, tabs, and newlines) can be used freely
21 in SQL commands. That means you can type the command aligned
22 differently than above, or even all on one line. Two dashes
23 (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">--</code></span>”</span>) introduce comments.
24 Whatever follows them is ignored up to the end of the line. SQL
25 is case-insensitive about key words and identifiers, except
26 when identifiers are double-quoted to preserve the case (not done
29 <code class="type">varchar(80)</code> specifies a data type that can store
30 arbitrary character strings up to 80 characters in length.
31 <code class="type">int</code> is the normal integer type. <code class="type">real</code> is
32 a type for storing single precision floating-point numbers.
33 <code class="type">date</code> should be self-explanatory. (Yes, the column of
34 type <code class="type">date</code> is also named <code class="structfield">date</code>.
35 This might be convenient or confusing — you choose.)
37 <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> supports the standard
38 <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> types <code class="type">int</code>,
39 <code class="type">smallint</code>, <code class="type">real</code>, <code class="type">double
40 precision</code>, <code class="type">char(<em class="replaceable"><code>N</code></em>)</code>,
41 <code class="type">varchar(<em class="replaceable"><code>N</code></em>)</code>, <code class="type">date</code>,
42 <code class="type">time</code>, <code class="type">timestamp</code>, and
43 <code class="type">interval</code>, as well as other types of general utility
44 and a rich set of geometric types.
45 <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> can be customized with an
46 arbitrary number of user-defined data types. Consequently, type
47 names are not key words in the syntax, except where required to
48 support special cases in the <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> standard.
50 The second example will store cities and their associated
51 geographical location:
52 </p><pre class="programlisting">
58 The <code class="type">point</code> type is an example of a
59 <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>-specific data type.
61 <a id="id-1.4.4.4.8.1" class="indexterm"></a>
63 Finally, it should be mentioned that if you don't need a table any
64 longer or want to recreate it differently you can remove it using
65 the following command:
66 </p><pre class="synopsis">
67 DROP TABLE <em class="replaceable"><code>tablename</code></em>;
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